There’s more than one way to win a basketball game. Some teams win with flair and smooth continuity. Other teams win with grit and methodical, physical play. It remains to be seen which route Duke will choose this season.
The Blue Devils pulled out another gutsy—if not always pretty—win that was reminiscent in many ways of its hard-fought 59-51 victory over Wisconsin last Thursday. In both games, Duke shot under 34 percent and had an assist-to-turnover ratio under 1:2.
“At Wisconsin, we never had a lead that we thought was a comfortable lead,” senior Jasmine Thomas said. “We always felt that the game was close and it could come down to possessions, so I think that helps us coming into tight games like this, knowing that we can close games out.”
Two of the biggest Duke baskets in the game—a Shay Selby 3-pointer to bring Duke back to within one with nine minutes to play, and an up-and-under leaner in traffic by Thomas to give the Blue Devils a one-point lead with 55 seconds on the clock—went in as the shot clock expired on largely blown possessions. Selby’s three in particular was a miraculous recovery after Duke had very nearly turned the ball over.
The Aggies built a 10-point lead with nine minutes to go in the first half, but that evaporated quickly courtesy of a 16-0 Duke run keyed by airtight defense. The early Texas A&M advantage turned into a six-point Duke edge by the time the clock hit two minutes. Rather than maintaining that momentum into halftime, though, the Blue Devils allowed Texas A&M to score the final five points of the half and salvage a one-point deficit going into the locker room.
Duke came out of halftime and rebuilt its prior six-point margin in the ensuing three minutes, but then the Aggies proceeded to make a run of their own and would lead until the nine-minute mark. In the final nine minutes, Duke never led for longer than 90 consecutive seconds.
Yet the team still came away with a victory over a talented Texas A&M squad, leaving the Aggies to take contested jumpshots for most of the game and limiting them to an equally poor 33.8 percent night from the field. In particular, Duke’s 6-foot-5 forwards Allison Vernerey and Krystal Thomas frustrated player of the year candidate Danielle Adams, who scored just 11 points on 5-of-18 shooting after averaging nearly 21 points per game over her team’s first six contests.
Head coach Joanne P. McCallie admits that her team is still working on its rotations; eight players played 13 minutes or more, and only three players played more than 24 minutes. While McCallie said they hope to continue playing eight or more players regularly, it will take more practice time—especially when three freshmen get significant minutes—for the team’s play to really fire on all cylinders.
“We’ve got a lot of different people trying to assimilate, and that’s going to disrupt continuity a little bit,” McCallie said.
In particular, the offense will hope to smooth out as its backcourt becomes more stable; four different players brought the ball up against the Aggies.
“We’ve got our post rotation established, but our guard rotation is still working its way through some things,” McCallie said. “To be honest about it, all we’ve done is play games. We’re like a pro team, and when you just play games, you have no ability to really work on things.”
The game-to-game changes aren’t limited to the offensive end. Texas A&M was stymied all night by Duke’s 3-2 zone, which was a change from its frequent full-court pressure.
“We’ve been changing our defenses a lot,” McCallie said. “We have multiple defenses. We believe in that, so there were a lot of changes in defense.”
So despite the hard-fought if statistically unimpressive victories over Wisconsin and Texas A&M, McCallie believes there’s prettier basketball to come.
“Let’s put it this way,” she said. “Think about where we’ll be when we shoot 48 to 50 percent. I think that’s a matter of time.”
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